Re-visiting the 'black box' of migration: state-intermediary co-production of regulatory spaces of labour migration

It is now widely held that a variety of intermediary actors, including recruitment and staffing agencies, multinational corporations and local brokers, shape labour migration. This paper argues that in order to better understand the global circulation of labour it is necessary to explore the involvement of these actors in the production of the regulatory spaces through which migrant labour is brokered. Indeed, migration intermediaries do not only navigate borders on behalf of their migrant clients. Nor is 'the state' primarily a backdrop against which the understanding of the role of intermediaries may be developed. Instead, we argue, regulatory spaces of labour migration are made and remade through direct and indirect exchanges and interactions between intermediaries and state actors. Through an analysis of three moments of regulatory change in Sweden, the paper shows that such interaction does not take place in an even landscape but, rather, that the ability of migration intermediaries to influence the regulation of migration lies in the capacity to form close relationships or establish a powerful presence. A focus on the dynamic co-production of regulatory spaces by intermediaries and state actors, in our view, offers a more nuanced account of how labour migration currently is brokered and regulated.

Automated summary

The paper argues that an in-depth exploration of the dynamic co-production of regulatory spaces by intermediaries and state actors is necessary to understand how labor migration is currently brokered and regulated. The analysis shows that the ability of migration intermediaries to influence the regulation of migration lies in their capacity to establish close relationships or a powerful presence, rather than in a level playing field of interactions with state actors.